HEALTH NOTE

Strategies for coping with fare at the fair

August 10, 2005|By Robin Mather Jenkins, Tribune staff reporter

Here's fair warning: Plan your pig-out.

The 2005 Kane, DuPage and Lake County fairs are history now, but there's still time to visit the Boone County (under way through Sunday in Belvidere), Will County (Aug. 24-28 in Peotone) and DeKalb County (Sept. 7-11 in Sandwich) fairs.

If state fairs are your thing, the 154th Wisconsin State Fair (now through Sunday in West Allis, near Milwaukee) and the 2005 Illinois State Fair (Friday-Aug. 21 in Springfield) also are coming up.

Whatever your preference, one of the big draws to a fair is the food. Funnel cake and roasting ears, cotton candy and corn dogs, lemonade and curly fries: They're all there, just waiting for you.

Our advice? Pick your poison. While some fair food is actually good for you (roasted corn with butter, at about 155 calories, is a pretty good source of vitamin B6 and thiamin), some of it is wretched (a corn dog, at about 460 calories, has 20 grams of fat, 5 of them saturated).

- The heck with it, it's only once a year: You watch what you eat every day. You get at least 30 minutes exercise every day. You are a sensible person. That's why, when the fair comes to town, you look forward to eating your way down the midway. Your menu: Corn dog, pop, soft pretzel, homemade taffy, funnel cake, pepperoni deep-dish pizza, French fries, ice cream. Calories: 2,605. Carbs: 388 grams. Fat: 91 grams.

Don't say we didn't warn you. After all, fair's fair.

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Nutritional data from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's student health library, calculated using Food Processor software.